healthy double chocolate zucchini muffins

These healthy Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins are made without any butter or oil, but so soft and tender that you’d never be able to tell! Greek yogurt and shredded zucchini keep them moist, while a double dose of chocolate makes them taste super decadent. A healthy and delicious way to satisfy those chocolate cravings!

Those days where you get hit with a sudden urge to whip up a batch of healthy double chocolate zucchini muffins at 10pm only to realize that you only have about 2 tablespoons of flour left to your name…

No? Never happened to you? Lucky ducky. Picture this…

It’s about 9:45 on a Tuesday night. I’m hanging out in my pjs (complete with fuzzy slippers), but I can’t sleep thanks to this strange new thing my body is trying out.

It wants to be both an early bird and a night owl, which means I’m super productive in the early morning and late at night, but basically useless from 1-5pm. At least creatively. I’m pretty sure my brain falls asleep and I go into autopilot.

Anyways, it’s 9:45pm and I’m just putzing around until I get hit with the bright idea to do some baking. So I:

I’ve learned to tolerate it when it’s paired with masked by chocolate, but it’s not something I normally (read: ever) have on hand… so the fact that I had zucchini but NO FLOUR made me feel like I was in the twilight zone.

It also meant that I couldn’t make any muffins, so I scrapped the idea, kicked off the fuzzy slippers, and stayed up until around 12:30am goofing around learning the ins and outs of Lightroom… only to wake up bright and early the next morning so that I could run to the store and [finally] make (and EAT) these…

Like all my other Greek yogurt muffins, these ones are made without any butter or oil, but stay super soft and moist thanks to the killer combination of yogurt, applesauce, and zucchini.

They’re naturally sweetened with maple syrup and coconut sugar, and you can make them even healthier by subbing out the chocolate chips for some dark chocolate chunks.

If you’re worried about tasting the zucchini, don’t. You’re looking at a girl who’s got the squishy squash on her veggie hit list (right up there with eggplant), and I can promise you that you won’t even know it’s in there. All you’ll taste is a deliciously decadent chocolate muffin that’s

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Preheat your oven to 350F (176C) and prepare a muffin pan by lining the cavities with paper liners or greasing them with cooking spray or oil. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until they become slightly frothy before whisking in the yogurt, maple syrup, sugar, applesauce, and vanilla. Mix until well combined before folding in the grated zucchini.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing gently until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, filling until they're about 3/4 of the way full. Top with additional chocolate chips, if desired.

Bake for 17-19 minutes, or until the tops of the muffins are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for ~10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Notes

* You could also make this with all purpose flour or use a mix of 1/2 cup (60 g) whole wheat and 1/2 cup (60 g) all purpose.** You can sub this with regular brown sugar.*** I like to place a handful of shredded zucchini between two paper towels and lightly squeeze it over the sink to get some of the liquid out. You don't want to get it all out, but you don't want it to be wet and soggy either.

I’m more productive in the morning, but sometimes I just don’t want to be… Like, I like the ideal “lazy morning” but if I have a lazy morning, it usually turns into a lazy day 😳 And I love zucchini in breads and muffins! These look delicious!

I totally know what you mean about the lazy morning turning into the lazy day. I try to give myself a set amount of time to do my own thing in the morning before I Get to work. Sometimes it works better than others though 😆

Finally another night owl in the blog world! Or at least a semi-night owl. I feel like the odd one out here many times with all the early birds. Granted, I secretly wish my creativity hit earlier because working typical office hours blogging interferes with my day job/sleep schedule.
These muffins look fantastic. I bet the maple syrup/Greek yogurt/zucchini combination works amazingly here.

You just need to make eggplant chips or ratatouille, both of which change the texture and flavor of eggplant for the better. But since this post is about zucchini, I think we should talk muffins, like how I want to make these (because I have oodles of frozen zucchini) and how I have every intention of whipping up a batch, but how it might not happen because pregnancy = zero energy and even less motivation. Oh well, I’m going to defrost the zucchini anyway in case I get a shred of motivation or am able to convince the Hubby to bake, although the latter might be stretching it.

I need the productivity in the morning AND evening. Heck, I’ll take productivity any time These look delicious, though I never expect anything less! Zucchini does have a lot of water when you shred it so I’m glad you made note to squeeze some of it out!

Please excuse me while I go DIE right now from the sheer NEED to have these. Seriously I have been CRAVING a zucchini chocolate muffin for ages now and these are absolutely perfect! You’re a genius, and I love you

Oh me oh my – these are just so dang MOIST! My salivary glands went on auto-pilot and made me spill drool all over – I must admit, am scared to make these cos I think I just might eat them all – in one sitting – even if it’s 10pm!

I made these tonight! I was out of coconut palm sugar so i used sucenat sugar instead, and did everything just like you did by weight. Oh and i used dark chocolate cocoa so my muffins are black. They are so fluffy, like an oily cupcake recipe. Great flavor! Sweet and chocolatey! Another fab muffin recipe! Thanks Ms Spoons!

I haven’t tried it, Paige, but I don’t think it’d work with this recipe without making other major adjustments. Coconut flour is a lot more absorbent than wheat flour, so you’d need to change up the ratios of liquids too.

These look delicious and I have a ton of huge zucchinis in the garden. I am planning to make these and wanted some input on substitutions based on ingredients I already have, for convenience. Can I substitute blue agave for the maple syrup and brown sugar for the coconut palm? If so, do you know if they are 1:1? Lastly, I only have whole wheat flour but I believe it would yield a denser muffin. I intend to substitute the WW pastry flour with plain WW flour and I assume either a portion of cake flour or all purpose or the addition of cornstarch. Do you have any suggestions on the ratios for this? Thanks!

Thanks for your reply Amanda. I made these tonight with the above modifications and they were delicious. They were moist and had a deep chocolate flavor. I used a nutritional calculator and was impressed as the healthiness since they tasted so good! I’ll be making these again.

Just enjoyed one of these straight of the oven and will definitely be making again. Tweaked as I plan on sharing some with friends that are gluten free and vegan. Used a GF flour blend, flax “eggs”, and almond milk with a touch of vinegar in place of yogurt. Used gf, vegan chocolate chips, and I omitted the coconut sugar and found the sweetness level perfect like that. Thanks for a fabulous, easy-to-customize recipe 😀

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I'm Amanda - health coach, cookbook author, recipe developer, makeup junkie, oatmeal addict, and the author of Running with Spoons - a blog dedicated to proving that healthy eating doesn't have to be bland or boring, one delicious snack and dessert at a time. More About Amanda →